--- title: "Hi, I’m completely new to having house plants, and I didn’t realize…" description: "Hi, I’m completely new to having house plants, and I didn’t realize you have to mix different types of soils to avoid overwatering and provide more humidity…" url: "https://getplanta.com/community/lZ7uAE3pQ86jnFGxrCwLrg/nYNzn5Vu54fK3xMXsB6x7H?language=de" community: "Anything about plants" author: "Aubry" published: "2025-07-03T12:29:18.209887Z" language: "en" image: "https://images.getplanta.com/v2/cloudinary/global_data/communities/everythingHousePlants.jpg" --- [Community](https://getplanta.com/community.md?language=de) / [Anything about plants](https://getplanta.com/community/lZ7uAE3pQ86jnFGxrCwLrg.md?language=de) # Hi, I’m completely new to having house plants, and I didn’t realize… _Gepostet von Aubry am 2025-07-03_ Hi, I’m completely new to having house plants, and I didn’t realize you have to mix different types of soils to avoid overwatering and provide more humidity etc. any advice for a newbie would be great! ## 6 Kommentare ### Kira kommentierte am 2025-07-03 It depends on your home environment and the plant, but for me I've had a lot of success using 1:1:1 perlite, potting soil, and orchid bark for most of my plants. If my dirt is getting fuzzy from mold then I know there's not enough drainage so I add the perlite and orchid bark to make sure it doesn't retain water for too long #### Holly antwortete am 2025-07-03 Came here to say the same thing ### Sunny kommentierte am 2025-07-03 Most of the popular plants sold at the mega stores can live in standard potting mix with extra perlite or bark chips added as Polkira described. Plants come from different environments and do better with a similar soil mix. Cacti and succulent plant owners use quick draining mix with more gravel/aggregates for the healthiest plants. Epiphyte plants (bromeliads, hoyas, jungle cacti) need a chunky mix usually without moss that’s typically found in standard potting soil. Your plants will drive the soil mix to get the best growth and health. 🪴🍀 ### Adrian kommentierte am 2025-07-03 Avoid Miracle Grow’s soil! It’s not well-draining and just not worth all the extra money you have to put into adding amendments to it to even try to make it better draining. Just please avoid their soil. It’s just not worth the risk of overwatering and root rot. I can’t tell you how many plants I’ve had to rescue because of their soil causing root rot, especially in hot or humid climates in the summer months. A lot of my local nurseries even have repotting counters specifically to rescue people’s plants from being repotted into Miracle Grow. Those nurseries want the stuff banned, and refuse to sell it. They tend to sell Espoma and FoxFarm’s soil mixes. Planta will list what type of soils the plants can be repotted with. Cacti, succulents, and peperomias do best in cactus and succulent mix. I swear by Espoma’s Organic Cactus and Succulent Mix for all of those. You don’t need to add extra amendments, and it’s built for plants that need well-draining soil. You can also use it to mix with a less well-draining soil to improve its drainage. Some brands have pre-made mixes that you can buy to reduce the amount of money and time you have to spend mixes your own mixes. Espoma’s got a good all-purpose mix that you can add orchid bark and perlite to for better drainage for more tropical or epiphytic plants. Orchid bark is for orchid and can be used to improve drainage in soil. They also have an African Violet mix that I use. I’ve heard great things about FoxFarm’s soil from the folks here. I stick with Espoma cause it’s cheaper, and I don’t tend to need to add extra amendments to it aside from their all-purpose mix, but that’s normal with most all-purpose mixes. They’re built to be more like a base layer to add stuff to. Hope this helps! ### 9thFloorGreenHouse kommentierte am 2025-07-03 General advice if you’re really unknowing (like me): Go through the process slowly using the planta app at first. If you’re going to repot, they take you step by step through it all. I’m getting lots of experience but I think it’s like cooking, I follow the recipe or try to. There’s so much information out there! ### Victoria Maddison kommentierte am 2025-07-04 My advice is to watch YouTube videos (actual people not ai shorts lol), if you don’t wanna mix your own soil there are pre-mixed soils you can buy online, I hear Molly’s mix is a good brand but there are others. The different additives help the roots breathe when the water eventually drains, otherwise they will rot quickly if there is no drainage or it stays wet for too long. Another thing, make sure your pots have drainage! Lots of decorative pots don’t have drainage holes, and as tempting as it may be to use them as-is anyways, it’s a bad idea! There are ways you can make drainage holes in those pots, or you can keep your plants in nursery pots and use the cute ones as outer pots. (No, pebbles at the bottom of a pot does not work as drainage). One more piece of information about overwatering: a common misconception about overwatering is that it’s about the amount of water your plants are getting, but in fact you can (and should) soak your plants and give them as much water as you can when you water. Overwatering comes when you water too frequently and don’t let the soil dry out in between waterings. It’s about how often you give your plants water, not how much you give it. Hope this was all helpful info and good luck with your plants! --- _Die Planta-Community (https://getplanta.com). Lesen ist für alle offen. Um Beiträge zu erstellen, zu kommentieren und zu liken, hol dir die Planta App: https://getplanta.com/download_